16.39, Thursday 15 Feb 2001

It's James' Upsideclown today. His life hasn't been going too well...

I stood watching the green-grey waves collapse and run up the shore, hoping that one of them could be bothered to run far enough towards me to make my feet wet and cold. But the tide was going out, so that was getting less likely by the minute. Just like the rest of my life; what was once so full of promise, was now looking utterly hopeless. Young, fresh, just out of a reputable university course and yet it had proven impossible to find work. I was faced with a mountain of debt, had no way of clearing it, and could not see any way out of the problem. I was totally alone in the world, and saw no hope, except for disappearing Reginald Perrin-like into the infinite distance.

James reveals all in Confessions Of An English Sand-Eater.